Dignity Restored (Lent 1)
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
It is this rehearsal each year, Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, that takes the memories of our faith stories to nourish us once again. ‘Where else would we go?’ You have the words of eternal life.’ But we have to remember them, repeat them to our children, write them on the door posts of our minds and our hearts. Scripture, breaking bread, song, prayer, gathering and dispersing, over and over again, point us to who God is and what God has done for us in Jesus. This morning, let me give you the one takeaway for today right up front:
GOD IS FOR US.
May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children
May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, He is with you
In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you
He is for you, He is for you (I know, I know)
Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen
The Blessing Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe
It has always been God’s plan to make us humans. And He made us with a purpose in mind - to till the garden - serve and keep it to the thousandth generation. The first creation story gives us dignity - the image of God burrowed into our very flesh. The second declares we are fashioned, designed, built for the task God intends. Hebrew words signal this: to serve and protect, this precious and fragile earth, to look out for its interest rather than only our own. To seek the welfare of the city, to repair the breeches in the walls of our common life. This is our mission if you will.
Where did we go wrong? The lament of Lent - where did we go wrong?
‘The greatest trick the devil ever played was to make the world believe he doesn’t exist.’ From the French poet, Charles Baudelaire. Augustine calls it the sin of origin or what we now call original sin; John Calvin says two things: ‘the total depravity of humanity’, and “human hearts are idol factories”.
Crafty snake exegesis comes into play. “Did the Lord say? You won’t die. You will just know good and evil.” He says nothing about fallenness or the thousandth generation suffering from the absolute destruction of the earth. He is always and foremost about getting power, keeping power, using power to claim more and more and more. God gave us the tree of life, freedom within bounds, yet we had to touch and taste the tree of good & evil.
Dignity Destroyed
“Where are you? You left your place of repose…” The heartbroken voice of the Lord. “Who told you you were naked?” Fig leaves never enough to cover shame. The world started to die that day, our God-given dignity smashed in the munch of an apple, good for food, a delight to the eye, wisdom craved like terrible addiction. Demonic ruin propelled to the fore, seduction complete. Eve and Adam, ha-Adam, dumb-struck by what they had accomplished. 10 centuries before Christ there is an enemy of God recorded in Scripture; a talking snake, not much of a surprise to the original ones; defeated, yes, but still defiant until the final days. It is his job to split you off at the root from your baptism, just like he did with Eve and Adam, just like he tries to do with Jesus. This is a fundamental recognition that the whole of existence is marred in an unnatural way, the garden in ruins. Dignity destroyed.
This is the world that Jesus enters, coming not to make us feel better about ourselves, a self-help course in self-care. Rather, to be the mirror that shows us the deep flaw in creation is of our own making, sin twisted to dehumanize and operate as anti-life. Jesus comes with abundant life but first we have to recognize we need it! Every word out of His mouth, every action toward healing and justice and His ultimate sacrifice to make right what evil had made so wrong. Everything about Him portrays redemption, from His birth to His death on the cross.
An important thing to note is this: the temptation of Eve & Adam is grounded in death, the destruction of faith. The testing of Jesus and of us, builds faith. It is our duty to stay clear in mind when we are tempted and when we are tested. Persecution aligns with tests; seduction and lusts align with temptations.
Jesus is tested in the miraculous, the spectacle and then the climax, political power.
Set aside the rules of nature and turn these stones into bread. 40 days & nights with no food, sure, why not? Jesus says, ‘wow, no, no, no. I’m famished but I’m not giving in. Scripture is clear: we do not live by bread alone.’ Okay, well, how about the show? Throw yourself down, the angels will lift you up. Imagine, just imagine, the crowds. Here’s the Messiah, He just flung himself off the roof! Let’s follow him, some kind of magician. Okay then, bend one knee, just one, and all of this can be yours. This last offer continues to this day. Through Christian history, beginning with the Roman Empire declared ‘Christian’ in 325, there has been a quest for absolute power and control in the name of Jesus. Historians use the word ‘Christendom’, as if a kingdom on earth, using raunch political power to gain control, violence if necessary, could make any nation, anywhere, any time, a Christ-centered realm. You can trace it through the history of conquest of far lands; it is clearly what structured and rooted slavery, especially here in the United States - it was primarily Christians who made the case for the dehumanization of Africans, them being viewed as less than human without God-given dignity. Hitler himself followed this pattern created here when he went after the Jews. Dignity Destroyed.
It is the original heresy and we see it enacted right now with White, Evangelical Nationalism. There is no nation on earth that is Christian, yet every nation on earth has Christians in it. Until Jesus comes back to reign forever, there will be no Christian nations. Only Christians, praying and working together to restore the breach of sin that breaks communities apart. Dignity Restored.
Jesus roots His defense in Torah, the original law brought down the mountain side by Moses: One does not live by bread alone; Do not test the Lord; Serve only God. These temptations are His and His alone. He is not out to prove God to us, He simply lives in deep and abiding relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is not user-friendly, He does not have a marketing department, He has a simple command for us: Follow Me. Or not as the case may be. You get to decide.
Our temptations lean more toward prestige, security and certainly material objects. We can pass through these temptations by trusting The Holy One who first gave us our dignity, embedded in the image of God, who claims us in our baptism as His own. The power of the tester is real, but there are limits. God’s Word and saving power in Jesus is complete for our salvation. God is for us. Dignity Restored. Amen